Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Sunday said that House Republicans would refuse any deal to raise the debt ceiling and re-open the government if it included backtracking on the austerity fiscal policy known as sequestration.
Over the weekend, Senate Democrats rejected a plan offered by Republicans that would have locked in the drastic spending cuts for the next six months.
"We get the sense that they don't want to negotiate," Jordan told Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday. "We've offered, I think, 11 different bills either funding all or part of the government and they haven't even debated them in the Senate, let alone pass them."
Jordan explained that House Republicans had two "key" requirements: "You can't keep spending money you don't have. Basic concept. We can't keep raising the limit on an already maxed-out credit card. Second principle is this: Obamacare, the way it's being implemented, is unfair."
"I don't think you're going to see House Republicans -- I mean, we are best when we stay united on basic principles of less government, less spending, of keeping taxes low," he added. "You are going to see us united that we're not going to increase spending. The sequester has been one of the good things."
"Are you prepared to let this go through the [debt ceiling] deadline on Thursday, when the secretary of treasury says we're going to go in default?" Wallace wondered.
"No one wanted the shutdown," Jordan opined. "And no one wants a default. What we want to do is stick to some basic principles of addressing the underlying problem. We keep spending more money than we have."
"We aren't going to break the sequester caps. We think that's one thing where we've saved the American people some money here."
A Bipartisan Policy Center report released on Friday warned that the sequestration cuts would have "devastating impacts" if they were not lifted.
"The full brunt of the cuts hasn’t hit yet, and if we go down the sequester path for too long, we won’t be able to reverse the devastating impacts," the report pointed out.
